Page 17 - MetalForming May 2016

grated sensors provide information on wear values or the consumption of lubri- cants, and alert users regarding the sta- tus of the bending tools or the need for machine maintenance. Bending-process data then can be backed up on a corporate network or in the cloud for retrieval and analysis, and statistical information can be viewed in real time.
medical, food, beverage, semiconductor and nuclear sectors reportedly have made use of the enclosures, as have companies experimenting with wire-plus-arc additive manufacturing.
welding vision. A transfer sleeve makes it possible to pass small parts in or out of the enclosure without affecting purge quality.
The control’s HMI control panel also has been optimized to improve process relia- bility and enable intuitive operation. “This makes the development of bending pro- grams or the input of tool data easier, says Bert Zorn, managing director of Schwarze- Robitec.
Schwarze-Robitec: www.schwarze-robitec.com
The standard enclosures are manu- factured with two sets of glove ports. The upper half of the enclosure, above the arm entries, is optically clear to provide ideal
As in the case of the robot manufac- turing cells and for laser and arc additive- manufacturing applications, custom- designed enclosures are possible. Huntingdon Fusion Techniques: www.huntingdonfusion.com
Tech Update
Flexible Welding
Chambers an
Economical
Alternative to
Rigid Enclosures
Huntingdon Fusion Techniques (HFT), with U.S. offices in West Melbourne, FL, has debuted its Argweld Flexible Welding Enclo- sures, ideal when a rigid chamber may not be economically viable or where space may be at a premium.
Consider that when welding titanium, zirconium and some stainless-steel joints it is important that the welding zone is purged of oxygen to a level as low as 10 parts per million (ppm). HFT’s flexible chambers allow for such conditions at a fraction of the cost of rigid enclosures, according to company officials.
“For many years the greater cost of a metal enclosure prevented all but the major companies taking on work involving the fabrication of these metals,” says Luke Keane, with HFT’s technical support group, noting that flexible welding bubbles provide rapid purging time down to a few .ppm of oxygen and are ideal for small pro- duction quantities of items that need total gas coverage.
Aerospace, automotive, biochemical,
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